Heather Mae Unluata

Heather Mae Unluata (Ünlüata) (née O'Neill) passed away on August 27th, 2024 from stroke-related complications. She was 80 years old. She was born in London, England in 1944, a product of a less-than-Anglican match between a dashing Jesuit seminary-educated Irishman, and an already married, middle class, English woman with two kids of her own. Heather grew up during post-war austerity and smog, ignorant of the knowledge that she had siblings from her mother’s marriage to another man. 

She was a high-skilled dressmaker in the couture houses of London, but found the work environment abusive, the clientele rude, and her future prospects limited. In the early 1960s she moved to the US to work as an au pair in the Boston area. Impressed by the bright and cheerful American middle class living, opportunities for social mobility, and the glamor of American modernism, she decided to make this country her new home.

 In the second half of the 1960's she met her future husband, Ümit Ünlüata, with whom she had two sons. They met at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she worked as a secretary and he studied civil engineering for water construction. They got married in 1971 and in 1974 she became a United States citizen. In 1976 they moved to Turkey where she supported Ümit's pursuit of building a marine science research institute.

After 18 years of living in Turkey, Heather moved back to the US with the support of her closest friend Maureen, whom she considered family. She settled in the Chicagoland area to begin her new life after divorce. It was in the early 2000’s when she discovered the secret her parents had kept, her two siblings, with whom she established connections and later met. 

For many years she worked as an administrative staff for healthcare institutions, first at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, IL, later at Rush University in the Chicago Metro area. She retired as an office manager in 2014 from Rush’s Behavioral Health offices in Downers Grove.

A loving mother, Heather never felt the need to raise her voice while raising her sons though both fit the category, “A bit much”. Her harshest words, alas, uttered with regularity, were “That is not the best use of the English language, young man.”

Though she wasn’t a scientist, she deeply cared about scientific research and education. Her (often unpaid) contribution to these fields came in the form of helping researchers and educators write for broader audiences and the public by making best use of the English language.

Heather will be remembered as a very curious person, a great conversationalist with a dry sense of humor, a very kind friend, a confidant, a great baker, and a loving matriarch. Preceded by her brother Keith Osbourne (d. January, 2024), sister Beryl Budd (née Osborne, d. 2014), former husband and father of her children, Ümit Ünlüata (div. 1998, d. 2006), Heather is survived by her eldest son Eden Foley, her son-in-law Craig Foley, her youngest son Jason Ünlüata, her daughter-in-law Holly Ünlüata, two grandchildren, Gabriel and Liam and her chosen-family of Maureen Shankey and her husband Vince Shankey. 

No funeral services will be held. A memorial event celebrating her life will be announced at a later date. In lieu of flowers or gifts, we invite tribute gifts to Morton Arboretum (Lisle, IL) where a tribute account in Heather’s name has been established. Please follow this link or visit https://mortonarb.org/join-support/make-a-gift/tribute-gifts/

Arrangements entrusted to Chicagoland Cremaion Options of Schiller Park, IL